Watching
by Sagethorn
Summary: "Bolin would watch her often, in quiet admiration. He would try and keep his concentration, but every once in a while his eyes would flicker back to her." Borra one-shot.


**[Author's Note: This is my first Legend of Korra fic ever! *Whoot* Not the first I've ever written, but the only finished one that was decent enough to publish. It's Borra, because I freaking love that pairing, and this site needs more Borra. It's just a little one-shot, set sometime before Episode 5. Enjoy!]**

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Bolin would watch her often. He would observe her at practice with quiet admiration. She was really improving. He figured at this point she was better than Mako, although he would never say that out loud for fear of giving those two another stupid reason to argue.

She could manipulate the water with ease, swirl it with her fingers delicately, then shoot it out with such force that sometimes it actually hurt to be hit by her waterbending, even under all that padding in the uniforms. He wouldn't complain about it though, just congratulate her warmly on the attack while pain stabbed through his ribs.

Sometimes he would be so absorbed in watching her manipulate the water into a deadly stream that he would goof up an earthbending move and send a disc into the gym wall instead of the net. Then Mako would yell at him and warm him that if he dented the wall it would be coming out of their earnings. Sometimes Korra would come to his defense and tell Mako to leave him alone, it was an accident. And Bolin would smile and thank her and she would smile back and say no problem, and they would continue with their day.

He enjoyed watching her during the matches, too. Her electric blue eyes were lit with such fire, such concentration, such readiness. Here she would put full-force into her attacks, and Bolin wondered sometimes how much it would hurt to be hit by her attacks when she was actually _trying_ to hurt you.  
She moved with such nimble grace, practically gliding across the floor, moving with the flow of her waterbending. She had mastered the light-on-your-feet pro-bending style without a hitch, weaving, ducking, sliding as the other team's attacks barreled past her.

Because he needed to keep his concentration during the matches (Mako would never forgive him if he screwed up then), he would try to keep his eyes on the opposing team only, flinging discs of earth, trying to send then flying. But every once in a while, his eyes would flicker over to her.

But other than training and matches, he didn't see her much. After their sessions were done, she would always pack up her stuff and leave for the island, saying goodbye and waving over her shoulder. Sometimes Bolin would stay standing on the arena steps watching her retreating form until she was gone from sight or until Mako called him in.

Sometimes Bolin wondered if just watching her would be as far as he'd ever get. She certainly paid him very little mind. Except for the usual, "Hi, Bolin." or "Nice shot." or "See you later.", she said very little to him. He had seen her hug his brother once, after a match, but she had never hugged him. She had high-fived him once, during a time-out in a match, so hard that his hand tingled. But that was it.

Later, after one of their most brutal but ultimately successful matches, as they were back in the locker room, shouting and cheering over their victory, Korra ran over to Bolin, wrapped her arms around him, and hugged him as tight as she could.

"Great job out there!" She said, squeezing him so tight he felt like his ribs were caving in on themselves.

"Hey...Thanks..." He manged to squeak out through collapsing lungs. "Can't breathe..."

"Sorry." Korra backed off for a moment, then hugged him again, not as bone-crushing this time. "We won!"

"Yeah," Bolin said, and after a moment wrapped his arms around her and returned the hug. "We sure did."

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**[Author's Note: How was it? I thought it was pretty good. (Hey, little fun-fact: It was exactly 600 words long!) Expect more Borra stories from me in the near/distant furture. Please please please review! Ciao! :3]**


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